RobL Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 (edited) Been documenting my progress on this build on another forum, made some actual physical progress today so I thought I'd share it here. I've always been a fan of the aesthetic Games Workshop had during the mid to late 90s for their Warhammer Fantasy Battles scenery. "Back in the day" I copied a building made by a guy called Adrian Wild, a writer for Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine during the 90s. My copy didn't survive even the first of two home moves, so I'm having another go at it. This is the building in question (the original by Andy Wild, not mine) - More references - Whilst my plan is to replicate this building (again), I won't be duplicating it right down to the last grain of mortar. Just a "looks like" build. For example my roof will hopefully look less ramshackle and my tower's roof will be a hexagonal "witches hat" style roof. This is where I'm at so far - The windows, these were cut out of the main walls, and I can understand why people use an x-acto scalpel now, I was using a Stanley craft knife! These will be covered with aluminium car body repair mesh, then squeezed back into the main walls. These are all numbered in correspondence with the holes in the walls they came out of- The ground floor, this will end up being clad in stone texture plasticard - The ground floor with the front door installed as a loose fit. The doorway (which is from the Wizkids Deepcuts range) isn't actually even on both ends of the "frame", so I'll have to do something with that. Also cut the pegs off the door that allow it to swing as that function won't be needed. - First floor section - Second floor section - Bay window section - And everything put together, loosely fitting as the glue is still drying. Each level above the ground floor has a layer of foamcore under it's floor so it will slot into the layer below it. - There's some tidying up to do, especially on the bay window section, although I may rebuild the bay window section as I'm not entirely sure it's straight. I think I'll go round the holes for the windows with a sanding stick to tidy them up if possible. The main walls are as square as I could get them, I wish I had a 1-2-3 block, that would have come in handy for making sure the walls are true. I did use a house brick though. I made a small balls up on the top floor front and back walls, they should have been attached between the side walls, not outside them. I'll remedy that by adding strips of foamcore to the triangular roof "beam" sections. So far so good though, they say plans never survive contact with the enemy but this one has so far. Can't really do much more to the ground floor level as I'm waiting on delivery of the embossed styrene sheet I ordered from Green Stuff World, it's coming from Spain so knowing my luck it'll be stuck in customs hell for a long while... I can make progress on the rest of this building in the meantime though. Edited June 18, 2020 by RobL 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarz-Brot Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Those glorious days when books and boxes under a green tablecloth slowly got replaced by foamcore landscapes and buildings. White Dwarf was a true inspiration back then. I love this, please keep posting. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Excellent, do keep us informed of your progress Dan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted June 17, 2020 Author Share Posted June 17, 2020 (edited) Thanks guys. I had a feeling yesterday when I built this that the pitch of the roof was too high. I've made the basics of a roof (no tiles yet) and put it on today and I was right. It looks to be about an inch, inch and a half too high! So, I've taken off the ends of the top level, adjusted the pitch angle, and redone the roof... ...lucky I'll be using polyfilla as a surface texture on the walls, it'll help to fill some gaps... Edited June 17, 2020 by RobL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Hi Rob, You've chosen a lovely subject. Your are lucky in that the 'Warhammer' style is mostly based on quirkiness, exaggerations and comedic characaturisations, so 'plumb-bob' accuracy isn't encouraged! Your building doesn't need to be square and true everywhere. In some places it should absolutely look 'skew whiff'. I'm not familiar with the type of 'board' you are using. I use something similar to 'foam board' but which is denser and stronger. I call it FTINFBISS : Foamboard That Is Not Foamboard, But Is Something Similar. I usually cut large sections with a razor saw, or score the board roughly 1/3rd of the way through with a scalpel, bend it back on itself and snap it. It snaps nice and cleanly. For smaller cuts, window and door apertures, I use the scalpel and cut around and around the edges getting deeper and deeper until the centre drops out. Any rough edges are cleaned up with metal files, or coarse grain sandpaper/emery cloth. When it comes to adding texture to the walls, it depends on what effect I want. I do sometimes stick fine grade sandpaper onto walls to represent 'wall rendering/plaster, cut and trimmed and 'cracked' with a scalpel to reveal brickwork underneath. Sometimes I will do the exact same, but using plain paper to give a 'smooth' render/plaster. Or sometimes I will apply a skim real plaster of paris and then work on that to produce a cracked and chipped wall render/plaster. BTW, if you do use plaster of paris, score and gouge the board first, to give the plaster a 'key' to adhere to. I do that, and often give the plaster a douse around the edges with thin CA. That soaks into the plaster and gets underneath, reinforcing the edges and sticking them to the board and helps to prevent the plaster cracking and falling off if the board is flexed. And, even if it does crack and fall off, it tends to do so in large pieces, which can be glued back on again. You probably know a lot of that anyway, but I hope that helps, Looking forward to seeing you progress, Rearguards, Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) Photos of Wednesday's and today's progress, doesn't look like much but I've been wrestling with getting the roofs right, and the tower right. Will move on to doing the chimney and the attic window on the back side. Can't do much else as I'm waiting on more glue sticks for my hot glue gun... The tower is a little bit short on the bottom end, I can probably cut a part off the inside of the bottom end though and rotate that round to the outside. Also need to put the window in the tower... I have also resized the bay window, didn't like how wide it was initially. Nothing is fixed in place, apart from the main walls, all the levels still come apart, the tower comes off, all roofs are loose fit and the bay window just slots in. I'm not sure I can keep it all like that once I've started to texture and paint it. Getting a bit difficult to photograph this, my backdrop isn't tall enough! And I forgot, again, to put a model in for scale comparison!! Not sure I like how the witches hat roof on the tower sits, but it is what it is. Edited June 19, 2020 by RobL 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 This is looking great, I will definitely be popping back for look again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 (edited) So, hot last week here in the UK... I couldn't sleep last night, so I thought I'd get back to doing this. The ground floor has been clad in it's "brickwork". This will have larger "slabs" made from plain styrene sheet on the corners to tidy things up a bit. The Chimney and rear attic window have been added. I need to do the roof for the rear attic window, what I originally made in template form turned out to be too small... The chimney will get clad in the same embossed styrene as the ground floor and will be flush-ish with the roof. The timber framing has been added. Although I haven't been able to finish it completely as I ran out of balsa wood. Somehow my calculation of about 1500mm turned out to be wrong, it's looking more like 4500mm will be needed!! I have more balsa on the way. I'm pretty sure that my corner pieces on the timber framing are all manner of wrong, but they are what they are. I'll be having a go at the timber framing with my dremel with a sanding drum, to shape it a bit, tidy it up in places and hopefully generally make it all look a little better. Photos - I need to work a safe way of cutting out the window in the tower... Had to add a patch on the roof around the tower... The tower witches hat roof got a circle of styrene sheet stuck inside it to improve it's stability whilst remaining a loose fit. The chimney is attached with 2 neodymium magnets. This is for the same reason as the tower roof is loose, so that I can remove them making storage slightly easier. More tidying up will be needed, I'm hoping the poly filla that I will use for the exterior texture will help cover up some of my crimes. I also have some "flock" from Woodland Scenics to use as moss to hide some crimes also. Edited July 1, 2020 by RobL 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Very nice. As a teenager I tried to build "The Prancing Pony" from LOTR. Came home one day and my mother had tidied my room an " thrown out that pile of cardboard" 🙁 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 (edited) Spent a little while this afternoon doing some more of this. Added the rest of the timber framing. Filled some gaps with some "general purpose filler" my mother had lying around the house. I won't be using it in place of polyfilla for the exterior wall texture as it's "ready mixed" and very difficult to get out of the tube. A box of unmixed polyfilla will be much easier to water down and work with. I also attacked the timber framing with my dremel with a sanding drum attached, to tidy it up and to give it more of a old worn battered look to the timber. I'm going to give the timber a bit of a sand with a sanding stick, just to smooth out some of the filler. Also clad the chimney in the stone wall effect styrene. Need to tidy up the corners, do some filling and add the top "slab" on the top which overhangs a little along with coming up with some chimney pots. But hopefully once that's done and I've tiled the roof it'll look completely flush with the roof and sit IN the tiles. Photos - I actually managed to remember to put some models in this time, for a sense of scale. The models in this photo are my unpainted replacement WHQ 1995 models (I don't like the original plastics GW gave you in the core box) - I'm actually ready to put the exterior texture on the walls. But I need to venture into town to obtain polyfilla for that... Although I guess it would be wise if I cut the tower window out first - keep forgetting to do that! Also only have the corners on the ground floor section to add large styrene "slabs" to before I start painting that level of the Inn... Still need to make the roof for the back attic window! Edited July 11, 2020 by RobL 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 7, 2020 Author Share Posted August 7, 2020 (edited) So, progress update. Bit warm where I am in the UK... ...been too warm for me recently, but today I spent a while doing some more of this project, trying to take my mind off the heat, humidity, and the quite painful arthritic inflammation in my right foot that it is causing... Photos - 1 A4 sheet of plasticard, cut down to form 10mm square roof tiles. One of 4 plastic shot glass the above were stored in, it was full - The above tiles got used to tile the roof of the wood store - Couple more photos of the wood store - The wood store is made from balsa wood, besides the roof which is plasticard. As you can see I've put a magnet on the cross beam at the back to fit the wood store to the main building. I've tried to make the balsa look wood like when painted, although I think I need to have another go on the parts I've already done as they're a bit too dark and brown for my liking. Outhouse made for the end of the building - I'll be making some hinges and a door handle for this using plasticard (1mm sheet for the hinges), half round plasticard rod (2mm for the hinges and the door handle) and some rose gold copper wire I have (0.8mm or 1mm diameter, whichever looks best). The lower two tiers of the building with the new bits "attached", you'll also notice that I have "dressed" the corners of the ground floor walls, it's just 1mm thick plasticard cut and sanded on the edges. I've also added a texture to the 5mm XPS foam sheet I'm using as a base. I may redo that on another 5mm sheet of XPS having heated it with a heat gun to get more definition in the texture, or I may use a 10mm sheet of XPS foam and do the same - Edited August 7, 2020 by RobL 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 9, 2020 Author Share Posted August 9, 2020 So, more progress today. Did some more of the roof tiles whilst I was watching the BTCC package on ITV4. Photos - Rear attic window - Front bay window. I noticed the roof was sitting too high, so I lowered the roof line a bit (simple straight cut just above the window) - I initially couldn't work out what to use as the cap tiles along the spine of the roofs. It seemed to be a case of cutting some of the 10mm square tiles in half. Then I realised that I had some right angle styrene strip lying around. Luckily it's not too small, not sure I'll be able to get away with using that on the main roof... Some gaps where the roofs join the main roof and the window parts, but hopefully when I've tiled the main roof, and can glue the other two roofs down, those gaps will disappear. If not I can fill gaps on the window areas with polyfilla and I have some 0.5mm lead I can use to run down the gaps between the roofs... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) So, it was too hot for me to sleep last night, until about 03:00 when I couldn't stay awake, so I had a go at starting to work out the painting process for the walls. I had earlier in the evening made a test "wall" to test the polyfilla for the wall texture. I probably put the polyfilla on too thick as it took 2 hours to dry. A while ago whilst browsing through White Dwarf Magazine issues for references for this project, I came across a tutorial (GW called it a Modelling Workshop) where Adrian Wild (the creator of the Inn that inspired me to make mine) described his process for painting such buildings. He stated he started with Citadel Bronzed Flesh, then drybrushed over that with Citadel Bleached Bone, and then finally in the centre of each wall panel drybrushed with a white (Citadel White obviously). So, I tried to replicate that process. Unfortunately in the intervening 28 years Games Workshop have changed their paints, but their paints were originally supplied by HMG Paints who make Coat D'Arms paints and the Coat D'Arms paints range is apparently still almost identical to the original Games Workshop paints. So for Bronzed Flesh, which no longer exists in Games Workshop's paint range, I bought a pot of Coat D'Arms Tanned Flesh, which is apparently the equivalent. Unfortunately the current Coat D'Arms Tanned Flesh doesn't look like an equivalent to Citadel Bronzed Flesh of the early to mid 90s to me, it looks too orange to me, photo - I also bought Coat D'Arms Bone, just in case, as even though Games Workshop still have an equivalent to Bleached Bone in their range it may not be quite the same shade as it used to be, this one does look OK to me, photo - Anyhow, I had a go and this is the result, it actually doesn't look too bad in the photo, but to the mk1 eyeball it's definitely on the orange side due to the undercoat of Tanned Flesh. I used Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh instead of pure white for the centre of the panel. I watered down some Citadel Balor Brown and painted that into the areas where I thought there would be shadows. The wood was painted with Citadel paints, Dryad Bark to start with, then given a wash of Nuln Oil, followed by drybrushes of Stormvermin Fur and Celestra Grey, that turned out about how I want it, although I need to improve my drybrushing as I've got streaks and too much grey in places, it was only a quick rough test though - I think for the actual painting I will go with a 50/50 mix of Coat D'Arms Tanned Flesh and Bone for the base/under coat, just to reduce the orange look to the mk1 eyeball. Edited August 10, 2020 by RobL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Seconds out round two! Tried again with the main wall colour. Did it as per above, minus the Balor Brown shading, but changed the base/under coat layer to 50/50 Tanned Flesh/Bone. Looks better to me. Caught the woodwork, but I wasn't worried about that, the aim was to achieve a reasonable looking wall colour. Edited August 10, 2020 by RobL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Got some more of this done tonight... Photos - Added some hinges and a door handle to the "door" on the "outhouse" - Tiled one side of the main roof, the ends need tidying up and some tiles were being held in place with tape whilst they glue - Unfortunately I've run out of styrene sheet, so I'll have to wait for some to arrive before I carry on with tiling the other side of the main roof and the witches hat tower roof. May start texturing the walls in the meantime. I get the feeling I should put the windows in first, mask them up, then apply the polyfilla wall texturing, but I'm slightly concerned about that going wrong and covering the windows or damaging the aluminium mesh I'm going to use for the window leading. Hmm... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted August 26, 2020 Author Share Posted August 26, 2020 (edited) Quick update on where I am with this. Last week I put the polyfilla external texturing on. It's turned out OK, but has need of touching up/sanding smooth in places, particularly on the tower and the front bay window - I can still see the join of the foamboard on the bay window! I also have some gaps to fill where I've now glued the main roof down (and probably the other roofs when I get around to gluing them down). I will however be leaving the main walls as they are, no smoothing, to make it less "boring" to look at when painted. This morning I put in the windows. They are made from the pieces of foamboard I cut out of the windows, covered in aluminium car body repair mesh. They almost look like I knew what I was doing... Getting close to finishing the build of this, just the rear of the main roof and the witches hat tower roof to tile, the aforementioned polyfilla work, the chimney to finish, a couple of other minor bits and pieces, and then I should be ready to start painting this... Photos, ignore the masking tape, that's just holding the roof down whilst the wood glue I used sets (hopefully) - image hosting Edited August 26, 2020 by RobL 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 (edited) So, it's been a while since I did anything to this project, so I thought I'd spend some time today and move it forwards... 4 hours later and I've tiled the back roof, attached the "spine" or whatever it's called to the main roof, and tiled a little bit of the tower roof. Got bored with tiling so I gave up. There are gaps where the two smaller roofs join the main roof, but I have a plan for fixing that, involving thin lead strip. That will be done after painting is done, so that I don't have to paint the lead, and it will therefore look like lead... There are also a few gaps in the main roof around the tower, which I will deal with by using a moss technique that Black Magic Craft showed in one of his youtube videos. Photos - I purchased recently some "wood piles" and a dry stone wall - And here they are in position, but not glued down - Edited September 28, 2020 by RobL 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddyf Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 That’s looking fantastic. Looks very rickety, and ready to collapse any second! Must admit I just had a tinge of nostalgia and dug out a couple of old White Dwarf’s, found one with the ‘original’ inn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 (edited) Fantastic work Rob. One thing: I never buy things that can be found in nature/in the home etc. My 'logs' were a chopped up twig from the garden. I gave mine a soak with thinners just to kill off any fungus, or mold The 'logs' are about 3mm in diameter, but you could go down to 1mm for smaller scales. Rearguards, Badder Edited October 6, 2020 by Badder 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) Thanks, I don't have permission to chop stuff out of the garden. Not my garden. SWMBO would not be happy. I have noted that the big wood pile I purchased, does look a little, small, and doesn't really fill the space up all that well. Not sure if buying another of the same would work, or what else I could do to make it fill the space a bit better. The "woodshed" on Adrian Wild's original Inn seems to have the wood all piled up going into one corner on the right hand side as you're looking at the Inn from the back, and it does fill the space up quite well. I'm guessing he did it a similar way to yours. Edited October 7, 2020 by RobL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 On 10/7/2020 at 9:07 PM, RobL said: Not sure if buying another of the same would work, or what else I could do to make it fill the space a bit better. If you really can't pick some twigs from the garden there are plenty of bushes shrubs and trees in hedgerows/parks, overhanging people's garden walls etc. If you can't do some 'pruning' elsewhere here's an idea. The only logs that would have to look like real logs are the ones on the top layer of the stack. Those beneath need only look like chopped logs on the ends. Not sure of the diameter at that scale, but how about carving matchsticks into rough cylinder shapes? Or whittle some toothpicks thinner? Paint the 'bark' brown/grey, whatever, and leave the ends as they are, or tint them? Rearguards, Badder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted October 20, 2020 Author Share Posted October 20, 2020 Thanks. To be honest, I just don't fancy going out and picking up twigs from anywhere. I'll probably just buy another of the log piles I initially bought, or just leave it as is, perhaps have the larger log pile set against one side of the woodstore's frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 (edited) So, been a while since I did anything on this, so I made a bit of a push to get it to the "ready to paint stage". There are some gaps, but I haves plans for sorting those out after painting. I added some details, in the form of a sign, and 3 wolf head ornaments, 1 on each corner at the front, and 1 on the front bay window. I also finished the chimney off. The witches hat tower roof is also finished, to a point, I intend to cap it with a lead cone, but I'm waiting on lead sheet to arrive before I even size that up. I tried with a paper cone the other day as a test, but didn't get good results so I'm hoping the lead works better, might have helped had I tiled a bit further up but the returns were diminishing so I gave up... Photos - Overall shot of the front - The sign, you'll have to take my word for it but the wooden bar is attached via a magnet in the wall, and the chains of the sign are attached via a magnet also, thus if it gets broken off, it won't break completely. I also realise it's hanging a bit low, but it's not big enough to hang from the bottom of the top level, so I may move it up - One of the two corner details, attached to the timber framing on the top level - A shield, it's just white tacked on as it will get painted separately - Finished chimney - I also added Soffit to either end of the Inn, to a) hide some crimes I committed when attaching the roof and b) for a slightly better look - Edited November 11, 2020 by RobL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 (edited) OK, below are some photos of painting progress so far. The walls were painted with Coat D'Arms Tanned Flesh and Bone mixed 50/50ish. Then I drybrushed over that with the Bone, and then again drybrushed over the top of that with Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh. The method I used for painting the stonework was to paint it Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey over a black undercoat. This was done with an airbrush. I then went and painted, with a hairy stick, "random" bricks with Citadel XV-88 and Celestra Grey. I then drybrushed all over with Citadel Karak Stone using a Citadel Large Drybrush. I then overcoated all the stonework in Tamiya Semi Gloss clear. Then I applied a dark clay wash made by a well known scale modeller. I'll use the same method when I paint the stone corner wall that I'll be adding to the base. The woodstore and the outhouse wood has been painted for a while, although I was looking for a more grey looking wood and I've gone a bit more towards the brown side, so I feel I need to do a light drybrush with a grey again, probably Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey. The roof on the woodstore is not finished, that's just my test work for the blue slate, none of which was satisfactory... Unfortunately the wood on the outhouse has white styrene behind it (should have use black! Doh!), and you can see it shows through. I need to somehow get in there with a brush and paint it black... Looks better on camera than I thought it would. Although with the mk1 eyeball this is best viewed from about 2ft away, because there are some not very nice bits here and there unfortunately, some of which I can disguise but some I can't unless I start again, fix them with filler and/or sanding, and repaint. The walls also look slightly more orange to the mk1 eyeball, at least under my "daylight" lighting tonight! Photos, it looks a bit wonky but that's mostly down to my camera inadvertently being at an angle and the fact it's not sitting on a flat hard surface under my black background - Edited November 15, 2020 by RobL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 (edited) I'm very close to getting this finished. Mostly only the roofs to paint and some of the small details, the base and then some tidying up with something that can't be applied until I've finished the painting. Made some more progress on this today though. Painted the timber framing with Citadel Dryad Bark, "cutting it in" against the walls was the most non-trivial painting I've ever done! I also blacked out the windows ready for a drybrush with probably Vallejo Game Color Gunmetal. There are a couple of spots I need to tidy up where I went over with the black on to the walls though... Photos - The paint on the walls is rather strange. At times it looks orange, but at other times, and to my camera, it's not so orange!?! I have purchased some paint for the roofs, just need to do a test on the woodstore/outhouse roof to see how it looks. The paint I've bought is Apple Barrel Too Blue, and Black, and I'll mix the two 50/50 as I've seen an example on the web that indicates that's what I'm looking for in terms of how I want to roofs to look. I will be staining the timber framing with Citadel Nuln Oil Shade, then giving it a dryrbush with Citadel Stormvermin Fur and Celestra Grey, but I am not confident of my pot of Nuln Oil being up to the job - I think that between today and the summer I managed to get some water in it, so I may have to order another pot in a few weeks when I put in an order for some other GW paints I need... Edited November 19, 2020 by RobL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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